Recently, with the vigorous development of information dissemination and the rapid changes in modern society, the pace of lives has been increasing, and the same can be said of work stress. If one fails to relax his body and mind properly, physical and mental diseases tend to follow. Many people resort to massage or tui-na for bodily and mental relaxation, but both massage and tui-na are associated with the acupoints and joints of the body and therefore must be practiced by experienced professionals. While the market is now supplied with a variety of health equipment (e.g., massage chairs) designed to relax (e.g., massage) a user's body in his own home, the soaring prices make such equipment inaccessible to all.
In fact, not all practices of massage and tui-na require profound medical knowledge. For example, craniosacral therapy (CST), which was developed through years of research and clinical tests by the academic community, involves pressing a patient's head with fingers, with a gentle pressure less than 5 gram per cm2, to enhance the balance of body movements and to promote the flow of bodily fluids. As the use of craniosacral therapy does not require sophisticated medical knowledge, it can be learned by the general public. Besides, the gentle press of craniosacral therapy, generally not heavier than the weight of a coin (5 grams), leaves no undesirable consequences even if applied slightly off the target positions.
The idea of craniosacral therapy began in the early 20th century, when Dr. William Sutherland, a US orthopedist, found that the bones making up the human skull are slightly movable relative to one another rather than “totally immovable” as traditionally held in the medical world. Sutherland spent over 20 years studying and recording the reactions of force applied to different parts of each skull bone, and the result was the development of a skull examination and therapy system. Then, in 1970s, Dr. John E. Upledger, a neurosurgeon, who frequently participated in brain surgeries, found an interesting phenomenon that the human head and dura mater tend to move with the pulsing of the cerebrospinal fluid. He also found that the slight pulses can be felt by touching certain parts of the body, and that by applying a very gentle pressure (about 5 gram per cm2) with the touching hands, the pressure of the cerebrospinal fluid can be adjusted for better health.
After decades of research, Upledger proposed the aforesaid craniosacral therapy, whose principles are briefly stated as follows. To begin with, the craniosacral system, which is a rhythmic system of the human body in addition to heartbeat and breathing, includes the meninges and the cerebrospinal fluid that protects the brain and the spinal cord. The extent of the craniosacral system starts from such upper parts of the body as the skull, the face, and the mouth and extends all the way downward to the sacrum or coccyx. As the craniosacral system influences the development and operation of the brain and the spinal cord, an unbalance or hindrance of the craniosacral system may lead to obstacles in the sensory, motor, or neural system. Craniosacral therapy is a therapy that assists the natural healing ability of the human body. A patient is generally requested to lie or sit on a therapy bed while the therapist puts his hands gently on the patient's body to “listen” to the rhythm inside. Craniosacral therapy is a gentle, manual, and holistic approach to physical examination and treatment and is beneficial to many body systems. Whether performed alone or in combination with other therapies, craniosacral therapy works equally well on the human body.
Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the human skull is composed of several bones, including the frontal bone FB, the sphenoid bones SB, the parietal bones PB, the occipital bone OB, and the temporal bones TB, to mention only those directly related to craniosacral therapy. During craniosacral therapy, the therapist supports the patient's two parietal bones PB with hands so as to relax the mastoid process TB1 of each temporal bone TB. Then, the therapist presses the patient's occipital bone OB at positions adjacent to the external occipital protuberance EOP and the exit occipital crest EOC (the therapist should not press beyond the jugular processes OB1 of the occipital bone OB, i.e., where the occipitomastoid sutures OS are situated). At this moment, the parietal bones PB will have moved outward to a small degree such that the gap therebetween opens slightly. As a result, the pressure of the cerebrospinal fluid inside the skull is reduced to enhance circulation of the cerebrospinal fluid. Craniosacral therapy helps improve the internal environment of the human body and restore the central nervous system to its optimal working condition. The same therapy can also provide an increased sense of ease and comfort, strengthen the immune system, and even improve patients' interpersonal relationships.
However, craniosacral therapy nowadays is mostly practiced by professionals (e.g., doctors, physical therapists, occupational therapists, chiropractors, etc.) and is rarely known to the public. Given its low prevalence, craniosacral therapy is also extremely expensive. In consideration of this, the inventor of the present invention came up with the idea of applying the principles of craniosacral therapy to the design of pillows, with a view to enabling the general public to feel the effects of craniosacral therapy, thereby increasing the understanding and acceptance of the therapy while promoting Dr. Upledger's painstaking research results. The issue to be addressed by the present invention, therefore, is to design a pillow with a novel structure capable of helping one who rests his head on the pillow to relax his head.